Conflict in the Middle East 1948-2011
1948 British leave Palestine; establishment of the state of Israel; first Arab-Israeli war
1953 US and Britain aid overthrow of Mossadeq government in Iran
1954–62 Algerian war of liberation against the French
1956 Suez crisis; second Arab-Israeli war. Britain leaves Egypt
1967 Third Arab-Israeli war (Six Day War); Israel occupies Old City of Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and Sinai
1973 Fourth Arab-Israeli war (Yom Kippur War); Arab oil embargo on states friendly to Israel
1974 Turkey invades Cyprus and occupies the north of the island
1975–90 Christian–Muslim civil war in Lebanon
1979 Islamic revolution in Iran
1979–81 US hostages held in Iran; US rescue mission fails and crisis resolved by negotiation
1979–89 Soviet intervention in Afghanistan; US supports Muslim guerrillas
1980–88 War between Iran and Iraq
1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon
1983 Islamic terrorist attacks on US and other Western troops in Beirut
1986 US air attacks on Libya
1990 Iraq invades Kuwait
1991 US led coalition expels Iraqis from Kuwait (First Gulf War). End of USSR; Russians allow independent Muslim states to emerge in Central Asia, but less happy about those in the Caucasus
1991–5 Break-up of Yugoslavia; between 1992 and 1995 Muslim population of Bosnia fights Bosnian Serbs and, for a time, Bosnian Croats; US support for Muslims
1992–4 Russia helps Christian Armenia defeat Muslim state of Azerbaijan in dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh
1993 Failed US intervention in Somalia; first attack on World Trade Center, New York City, by Islamic terrorists
1994–6 Russia tries to suppress Chechen independence but is defeated
1994–6 Rise to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan
1998 Islamic terrorist attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania; US air attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan
1999 US-led coalition attacks Yugoslavia (Serbia) to protect Muslim Albanians in Kosovo; Russians invade and occupy Chechnya, but fail to end guerrilla resistance
2001 (11 September) Islamic terrorists use hijacked airliners to attack the Pentagon in Washington, dc, and to destroy the World Trade Center in New York City; US attacks Afghanistan and overthrows the Taliban regime
2003 USA and Britain invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein
2006 Execution of Saddam
2011 Last US ground troops leave Iraq